Middletown family pleads for information in New Years Day killing

During the early morning hours of Jan. 1, 26-year-old Teresa Shields was shot to death in the passenger seat of a vehicle at the intersection of Wicoff Street and Roosevelt Boulevard.

Her murder remains unsolved, but it’s not for want of evidence or effort by Middletown police detectives. It is a matter of proof and cooperation from the community that is needed to solve the case, police say.

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“Our investigation is far from over and we have been to Chicago and seized evidence already as well as still pulling in witnesses and suspects,” Middletown Police Chief Rodney Muterspaw said in a recent Facebook post. “The case file is massive. I just couldn’t imagine as a parent knowing there are people out there who know more but won’t come forward with it. It is heartless and it is senseless. What kind of person knows a young girl was murdered in cold blood but won’t help her get justice?

Steven Waldon was the driver of the white SUV that was riddled by bullets. He was also hit and drove to Atrium Medical Center in Middletown where he eventually recovered. Shields was declared dead.

Middletown Police Detective Steve Winters is blunt about the events of that night.

“It was a contract hit,” Winters said. “I know the intended party was Stevie Waldon, but unfortunately Teresa Shields was killed. Her family, it absolutely breaks my heart what they are going through. They are good, good people and they deserve justice.”

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Tina and Dale Shields were vacationing in Mexico in their motor home when they received word of their daughter’s murder.

“We flew home,” Tina Shields told this news outlet, adding that she and her husband are heartbroken they didn’t spend Teresa’s last holiday on Earth with her.

“She was such a hard worker. A home health care worker,” Tina Shields said.

Teresa was also interested in fashion and wanted to have children, she said.

“It is just so hard … she loved the whole family and her friends,” Tina Shields said. “There are people who know what happened to my baby. They need to come forward and speak. Teresa would do it for them, I know she would.”

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Muterspaw said cooperation is needed from the public to solve the case.

“We have ideas of who did it, we have suspects, we have leads, but the right people need to come forward who were there and who saw what happened…” he said.

“The family deserves that. The girl that was murdered that night, she deserves justice and right now we are not getting it,” Muterspaw said.

Anyone with information regarding the Shields homicide can: